Campbell Soup’s lukewarm sales pitch is begging for a real cook. The $12 billion canned food and snack company is trying to sell its fresh and international brands while stepping up cost cuts on its stagnant core business. It is leaving the door open for a sale, but that’s unlikely to appease activists like Third Point’s Dan Loeb. The New Jersey-based prepared foods outfit has had a difficult run. Chief Executive Denise Morrison quit abruptly in May after leading a string of questionable acquisitions, and the company launched a strategic review under an interim CEO. Meanwhile its main businesses are

The labors set by King Eurystheus for Hercules were meant to be impossible. The terms Qualcomm has set for hostile suitor Broadcom are in a similar vein. Unless Broadcom boss Hock Tan can call on the same superhuman assistance as the mythical Greek hero, Qualcomm’s gesture of cooperation doesn’t much increase the odds of a successful takeover. Qualcomm’s chairman, Paul Jacobs, said on Monday that with a few tweaks, rival chipmaker Broadcom’s offer of just under $120 billion would be palatable. Most of the requests are pretty reasonable, like boosting the fee Broadcom would pay if a deal fails to

Patrick Drahi has made it easier for Altice shareholders to see if he is doing a good job. The founder of the cable and telecom group is spinning off the U.S. unit that was formed in 2015 at a cost of almost $30 billion including debt. He is also reorganising a struggling European business. The new structure will show clearly whether he is doing enough to tackle problems at home. Drahi’s Netherlands-based group said late on Monday it would give shareholders its 67 percent stake in Altice USA after the unit pays a $1.5 billion dividend. That helps insulate the

It’s easier for an activist to oppose than propose. That’s the straightforward lesson from Clariant’s struggle with its largest investor, White Tale. The 20 percent shareholder scuppered the Swiss chemicals maker’s merger with U.S. rival Huntsman. Determining what happens next, however, will require powers of persuasion. The $9 billion company announced on Friday that it would lay out a new strategy for investors early in the new year. At the same time, it rejected a proposal by White Tale – which combines Keith Meister’s Corvex and fellow U.S. fund 40 North – to hire an investment bank to lead the

Take the money and run is the new Uber Benchmark. The ride-hailing firm, valued at nearly $70 billion in its most recent funding round, is beset by multiple controversies, managerial turmoil and huge losses. Early investor Benchmark may be loath to give in to demands to sell its 13 percent stake. But it would help restore some stability and let the venture-capital firm rake in billions. Benchmark, which led Uber’s series A funding round in early 2011, has injected nearly $30 million into the company, according to fellow shareholders. Now, though, it has turned to the courts to try to

Some $171.8 billion of cross-border merger and acquisition deals between U.S. and European companies have been announced so far in 2017, the highest figure at this stage of the year for a decade as companies on both sides of the Atlantic hunt for deals to offset sluggish growth. A $14 billion tie-up between U.S.-based chemicals firm Huntsman Corp and European rival Swiss Clariant AG, announced on Monday, is the latest example of the spate of big deals between the two regions. The overall value of cross-border M&A deals between the U.S. and Europe is up 82 percent on the same period last

Can you have vision without clarity? When it comes to SoftBank boss Masayoshi Son, it seems the answer is yes. The Japanese maverick has unveiled the first close of his $100 billion technology fund, rustling up $93 billion in seven months: an unprecedented sum, raised in a very short space of time. If he can deploy that to find more gems like Alibaba, his most successful investment, this may turn into a bonanza for SoftBank investors. But for now he is keeping them in the dark on crucial details. The Vision Fund is a juggernaut backed by Saudi and Emirati

Thermo Fisher Scientific has started a new experiment with a pricey deal. The maker of electron microscopes, DNA-sequencing machines and other lab supplies is paying about $5.2 billion to buy Patheon, which produces drugs and the chemicals used in them. Cost savings don’t come close to covering the premium being paid. While the industry may be ready for consolidation, Thermo Fisher also has a lot to learn. The $68 billion company has done more than a dozen deals over the past five years, as it expanded into providing more equipment and services to customers. Thermo Fisher’s investors have benefited from

On June 12th Reuters will host its inaugural Global M&A Summit, an exclusive event that will bring together senior investment bankers, M&A lawyers, international investors and corporate executives in our Thomson Reuters 30 South Colonnade office in London. Reserve your seat today The Summit will serve as a platform to discuss the current global M&A landscape with a special focus on protectionism, including the handling of politically sensitive transactions in spite of calls for protectionist measures by British and European politicians. Cross-border M&A activity will be another highlight of the Summit, with a special focus on the political implications of

Lloyds Banking Group has hit peak Antonio Horta-Osorio. The UK lender’s recovery under its current chief executive has been impressive, however one slices it. But from here, his efforts become relatively less important in driving Lloyds’ returns than what happens to the British economy. The UK bank is outperforming on several measures that investors care about. The margin it makes between interest paid and received increased in the first quarter to 2.8 percent, beating both Lloyds’ own target of just over 2.7 percent, and analysts’ estimates. The gold dust that is equity capital is also mounting – Lloyds now says

James Gorman is rubbing Goldman Sachs’ nose in it. Morgan Stanley’s chief executive didn’t just hit his return target with a $1.8 billion first-quarter earnings showing. His fixed-income, currency and commodities traders virtually doubled their top line from what was a tough period for the industry last year, confirming that their chief rival made a mess of the first three months of the year. Morgan Stanley’s 96 percent jump in fixed-income trading was easily the best of the batch of Wall Street’s bulge-bracket results. Bank of America, Citi and JPMorgan each boosted their comparable division’s revenue just shy of a fifth, which

Jack Ma may be giving a rival bidder a smarter way to win an M&A fight. The Alibaba chief executive’s payments division, Ant Financial, has sweetened its offer to buy MoneyGram to $1.2 billion. That’s 20 percent higher than what interloper Euronet proffered. Cost cuts alone cannot justify it making a new counteroffer. Given Anbang’s struggles to close its deal with Fidelity & Guaranty Life, Euronet is better off waiting to see if regulators clear the way. Ant’s new terms represent a 64 percent premium to MoneyGram’s share price before talks started and value the company at 18 times this